Zanzibar

Zanzibar, part of Tanzania ("Tanzania" is a composite name created from Tangenika and Zanzibar), is the heart of Swahili culture, one of the most historic places in this part of the world. It has a mixture of African, Middle Eastern, and Indian cultures, and most people here are muslim. The old town of Zanzibar, also called Stone Town, is a relaxing place by the Indian Ocean, filled with exotic scents and sights among the labyrinthine alleyways much like a typical Arab town. The tourist facilities here are quite a bit more comfortable than in mainland East Africa we've been to, even Nairobi. It was high summer in this part of Africa south of the Equator, days on Zanzibar were pretty hot. We took a boat tour of the sandy islands around the port. It was my first snorkeling trip and it was a wonderful experience. The turquoise waters and the clean white coral sands were incredible, as were the colorful exotic shells we found. The coral sands were very prickly to the foot however, and I also stepped into some sea urchins, ouch! Besides, I got severely sun-burned during just 1 hour or so of snorkeling, which took more than four weeks to completely recover. During the boat trip we also visited a sactuary for giant tortoises from the Seychelles, who were surprisingly agile despite their giant size. These are the world's largest land tortoises. Dirk almost got run over by a 600 pounder going for the cabbage in his hand. The Indian-Zanzibari owner of the waterfront Indian restaurant where we booked our boat trip is quite a character, full of personality. His name is Joshi, and he related to us a lot of local political anecdotes.

Regarding the culinary scene, we visited the night markets on the waterfront where grilled seafoods were served (this gave me stomach ache, unfortunately); Dirk was amused to find Chinese restaurants where pork was not on the menu. We also chatted with a young local fisherman at the night market, he was easy-going and fun to talk to. While we browsed the souvenir boutiques along the alleyways, a sykes monkey stringed to the fence of a church caught our attention. When I tried to pet it, it snatched money out of my pocket with lightning speed! However, I was able to grab my money from its grip since it's tied to the fence and couldn't get away. Another night we relaxed in Freddie Mercury's bar, named after the late British rock star born in Zanzibar. The last two days on Zanzibar we spent on the east coast of the island, at a luxury resort in Jambiani. Because it was low season, we had the whole beach resort to ourselves. It was very relaxing by the swaying palms gazing out to the turquoise Indian Ocean. In the evening we went to a dance party on the beach and mingled with local young people.